I’ll let you in on a secret: you’re not bad at math
Think about Language Arts, or Science. We don’t say we’re bad at language as a whole, but instead bad at grammar or bad at Shakespeare.
This also leaves room to highlight what you’re good at too. Bad at spelling but good at short stories. Good at telling stories. Good at reading fast.
In math we need to break it down too, as math is also divided into many parts.
Bad at mental math, but good at recognizing patterns.
Good at reading graphs.
Good at geometry puzzles.
It’s always good to take the time to identify the part of math we are good at.
Often times, what we think is lack of math skill is actually Math Anxiety rearing it’s ugly head. Our education system (past and present) is not good at teaching math in way that makes us happy and interested, but instead stressed anxious and resistant. It creates Math Anxiety that can follow us the rest of our lives if we let it.
So firstly, I’d like to apologize on behalf of teachers, and the system for burdening you with this extra stress and anxiety.
And secondly, I’d like to show you how together we can overcome those feelings and work with our strengths to find joy and confidence in our math skills again. All we need to is commit to naming and speaking our anxieties so we can let them pass, and to approach new math challenges with the promise to give them our best, regardless of how that anxiety tries to interfere.